Before February 2024 I did not listen in any regular capacity to K-pop. I would occasionally catch a song when it reached the mainstream or when I saw something through the posts of friends on social media, but I don't actively seek songs out. It didn't help that I've heard horror stories about how toxic the fandoms can become and I didn't want any part of that. If you look at my music streaming stats, pop music is usually the least likely thing you'd find on there - for the record, my favorite genres from last year were progressive metal, djent and melodic dubstep. I like a lot of genres, but last year I found myself drawn to rhythmically and sonically complex songs that have some sort of emotional climax. I am also only tangentially aware of pop music in the western world, so my knowledge of music is limited.
But that all changed when the YouTube algorithm showed me a video I'd never seen before. It was this video:
It was a video featuring the members of Kpop group NewJeans debating two topics. The first topic was the one that caught my attention, because it was about the eternal debate of what came first, the chicken or the egg. A member from Team Egg (who I would later learn was Danielle) and a member from Team Chicken (who I would later learn was Hanni) passionately argued about whether dinosaurs were "the first animal to pop out of this Earth." (For the record, I'm with Team Egg on this one, and I think Danielle and her teammate Haerin made a persuasive argument.)
It was funny, it was entertaining, and I found myself wanting to know more. At this point I hadn't even heard a single note from NewJeans' music. A month with change later I had listened to the discographies (and watched the videographies) of three groups and overall changed my impression of K-pop as a genre. Some of these songs are now in my rotation. I am a changed man.
If you look at the discographies of these groups, unless they've been around for a while (or are extremely prolific) they actually don't make a lot of music. Korean pop releases are unique in that each release (or 'comeback') is usually a short EP or single consisting of a handful of songs that these groups will promote and perform for a period of time. These songs are extremely catchy and are engineered for the social media age (some more than others, more on that later.) In this promotional period, groups do a ton of variety content, whether in their own channels or spaces or on traditional variety shows - as much as they are singers and dancers, they are also expected to be entertainers. This is supplemented by a small sub industry of fans who do edits and compilation videos of these variety show appearances, translate them for international audiences, and hype up the group during and in between these promotional phases. Their contributions to growing fan spaces is not to be underestimated as that's how I got into this mess in the first place.
The music can be incredibly diverse, drawing from (and sometimes appropriating, but that's a topic for another day) many different musical styles, depending on the group's 'concept.' In the end, the finished product is the Ivan Drago of music, if music (aside from what I hope is still an earnest piece of artistic expression) was also scientifically manufactured for charts and virality. You will find yourself humming these hooks at random parts of the day, and many of these songs are made almost solely out of them.
In this short piece I'll be talking about three K-pop or adjacent groups that I've been following for the past month or so. No, I don't actually have any biases, I'm too old for that shit, I'd be happy to cook BBQ for any of these ladies at my hypothetical daughter's request or something. As I have limited knowledge of music in general expect takes on these songs that may not be as incisive or verbose as the pros. Feel free to dismiss these opinions, I mostly watch films!
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1. NewJeans
Let's start with the group that made me fall into this rabbithole in the first place. NewJeans is a girl group that debuted in 2022 but has found massive popularity in the Tiktok age. Their songs incorporate elements of dance music, house and club music, with sweet vocals and a very cute, fresh and pop aesthetic. I find it interesting that a lot of these songs are specifically engineered for social media usage i.e. relevant passages and hooks fit nicely within the 15 or 30 second length for the shortform video format. This is also a younger group than I'm used to, as their youngest member (Hyein) is 15 as of this writing. (To contrast, their oldest member, Minji, is 19.)
Favorite Song: OMG (released 2023)
OMG is a song that wears its all consuming love-crush on its sleeve, with lyrics about how having a crush on someone can sometimes make us crazy. I may be an old guy, but that's something that's pretty relateable. The music video literalizes that, showing NewJeans' five members in a mental hospital, living out various illusory lives. Metatextually, only Danielle knows they're actually filming a music video, and the ending seems to imply that the lives that these girls live in their minds have a ring of truth to them. It's a fun song, it's catchy as hell and like many of their discography, it's a bop.
2. Le Sserafim
This group may have debuted only a month before NewJeans, but this is probably the group I'm most familiar with: three of the members of this five (formerly six) member group were from the reality show Produce48, and two of those girls came from the disbanded supergroup formed after that show's conclusion, IZ*ONE. In particular, ex IZ*ONE member Sakura Miyawaki was also previously a huge idol in Japan as part of the group HKT48. Like many of her fellow members, she got out of her comfort zone and joined this group. Their concept is 'being fearless,' and after watching their pre-debut documentary The World is My Oyster I've come to think of another way of interpreting the concept: it's not that these ladies have zero fear, but they go forward in spite of it. Take this with a grain of salt as I am not a dancer, but they've continually impressed me with tight, difficult choreography and formation dancing, and catchy beats with memorable hooks. They're also extremely entertaining during promotional activities. My YouTube homepage is filled with their videos because of that.
Favorite Song: Fearless (released 2022, re-released 2023)
Artists sometimes make songs to make a statement to the world at large; Fearless is one such song and the statement is 'we've arrived, and we're here to stay.' The song itself is the one that embodies their 'fearless' concept the most, to keep on keeping on despite what the world may think. The official music video (which still features all 6 original members) has each member in various situations (riding a bike, climbing a ladder, standing in front of a wall with graffiti) which serves more as a means for visually hyping its debuting members.
3. XG
XG ('Xtraordinary Girls') is a bit of an anomaly: they are an all-Japanese girl group who sings primarily in English and promotes in Korea. Are they K-pop? Maybe? I dunno. With heavy R&B and hip hop influences, even though they're the girl group I know the least about, XG is probably my most favorite of the girl groups I've seen in this period. They're all extremely talented singers and dancers and I find all of their very small discography (they have like, 10 songs) impressive.
Favorite Song: Shooting Star
I'll be honest, there are so many choices to put on here (Left Right, esp. the remix, Tippy Toes, New Dance, TGIF) but I'll have to shout out Shooting Star for the chorus (I think it's the chorus lol) where members Chisa and Juria sing in harmony and it's like D50 Glucose being injected into my veins. I love it.
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That's the end of my post. I'll be watching out for more groups in the future (let's look at boy groups next time) and maybe this thing can get multiple parts. Maybe like do a franchise or something, I want to do something other than review films in my pseudo-retirement. I may also consider going to a K-pop concert in the future, who knows. So anyway, watch out for that comeback when it happens.
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